Pause Rewind Playback
by Shayla the Strange
Summary: If you married the wrong man, poorly raised your one child, and lived misery for someone else's wishes, given the chance, would you turn back time and undo every mistake of your life? An Island of Happiness Story
1. The First Wedding

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness or any of the characters mentioned in this story. I have simply given a few personality make overs, renamed them, and created false lives for the amusement of myself and others.

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"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.  
Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking.  
Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice.  
And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.  
They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

--Steve Job

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**Author Notes:** Alright, so it may not seem like a MarkxChelsea story at first, but it's about her making the mistake of marrying the wrong man (don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against Elliot, I just don't like him) and having to go back in time to undo her mistakes and marry who she should have married in the first place. (hrmcoughMARKcough) Please, shippers of other pairings, don't beat me up. You don't have to know anything about Harvest Moon to read this story, because I kind of re-modeled some of the characters. So... those HM fans might get confused. IoH is the only game of the series that I've played, so please don't kill me if I got something wrong.

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"Leah, you look beautiful."

Two watery, blue eyes looked up at Felicia. She looked absolutely dazzling herself. Her strawberry colored hair was let down and curly, beautifully accenting the soft green tones of her dress. No stranger could have guessed she was the mother of two children, one of whom was getting married today.

"Really?" Leah asked quietly. For some reason, she sure didn't feel beautiful at all. She felt like a leper. Like a liar and cheater and an overall terrible person. How could she _do_ this to him? To his family? To herself? Despite everything she's done in the past two years to try and be a good person, this would probably be the biggest sin of her life and she could never take it back.

"Really." The two women turned around to the old male who had walked into the room. Taro looked… nothing like himself. A single tuxedo and pink corsage could do quite a bit to a man's appearance. It was such a stark contrast to his usual pair of overalls and a handkerchief around his neck. The only thing Felicia let him keep were his white gloves – but she insisted on buying new ones for him. Leah and Taro secretly agreed that the woman was putting too much effort into the wedding. It was only a one day thing, and the only people in attendance would be the regular villagers, but Taro didn't dare tell his daughter that, and Leah felt too tired to argue with her soon-to-be mother in law.

"You sure look fancy," Leah said, grinning wearily.

"Aren't you one to talk, Missy?" The bride and veteran farmer shared a smile before a pretty pink haired girl entered the room.

"Alisa says that it's almost time." Leah raised an eyebrow and almost inquired about the mystery girl's identity until she stood next to Felicia and it clicked.

"_Natalie?!_" she asked, surprised. The younger girl rolled her eyes.

"Who else?" Leah let out a disbelieving laugh and hugged her friend, grabbing her by the shoulders so she could examine her. It was hard to recognize the tough little Natalie under all the hair pins, curls, and make up. And the dress.

"You hate dresses," Leah remembered quietly. "I didn't even expect you to wear church clothes." Natalie gave her long lost sister a smile.

"I'll break a promise for you any day." Leah bit her lip as a fresh new set of tears threatened to fall down her cheeks. Oh, Natalie. How could she betray Natalie? Before she knew it, Felicia had an arm around her and was dabbing the corners of her eyes, muttering about how she _knew_ she should have gotten new waterproof eyeliner.

"Are you going to be alright?" Felicia asked. Leah found herself nodding and trying to take deep breaths. The two pink haired females walked out of the room, leaving only the sharp dressed Taro and the teary eyed bride.

"Thank you for walking me down the aisle," she said as he stood beside her and they stared into the mirror. He was at least four inches shorter than she was. It was almost funny how much growing she'd done over past couple of years.

"It was the least I could do," he muttered," Considering your own father decided that he didn't want to come." Leah choked back another sob and took a deep breath. She was sick of this. She was through crying over her parents and everything they didn't do. By now, she should have learned not to expect anything from them anymore, but that never helped to ease to pain that came with knowing they weren't going to be there. Her father missed her birth, and over half of her birthdays. Her mother made the chauffer drop her off to the first day of kindergarten. Elliot's relatives were more family like than her own kin ever were.

"Are you sure you can walk down the aisle with those heels?" the older man asked, looking down. Leah gave a small 'yup' and tried not to hyperventilate as Taro led her into the main church area. It seems that Alisa had already managed to get everyone out of the church. Felicia insisted on an outdoor wedding. It was just so _fitting_, apparently, because the farmer girl was marrying the old farmer's grandson. "And-" Leah remembered Felicia say," It will bring out the red tones in your hair that you always hide under that handkerchief."

Leah didn't feel like herself without her bandana. Of course, she didn't feel like herself at all. While she was trying to convince herself that this was how everything was supposed to go, there was a little part of herself, deep, deep inside that told her this was all wrong.

"Alexandra?" Taro asked softly, calling her by her real first name. It took her a moment to realize that she'd stopped right in front of the closed double doors. "Are you ready?" She closed her eyes and quickly asked someone, _anyone_ to help her through this. She just wanted to know if she made the right choice, after all.

"Yes, Taro," she answered confidently. "Let's go."

--

"I, Alexandra, choose you, Elliot, to be my husband, to respect you in your successes and in your failures, to care for you in sickness and in health, to nurture you, and to grow throughout the seasons of our lives." _Seasons of our lives… seasons of our lives… _There were mostly sounds of "aw" and murmurs of affection amongst the crowd, although Leah could have sworn she heard a few chuckles. Denny told her to throw in the "seasons" joke. A small, sad smile graced her lips as she looked into Elliot's large, caring brown eyes, and the affection he held for her was just a reminder of what she really didn't deserve.

"You may now kiss the bride."

Leah closed her eyes and felt a soft pair of lips brush her own. Cheers rang amongst the villagers and the bride felt hot tears begin to run down her face as Elliot pulled away. She did it. She officially ruined the rest of her miserable little farmer girl life.

"Leah, honey, what's wrong?" Elliot murmured, taking her face in his hands.

"I-I'm just so happy," she hiccupped. He smiled and she felt herself being scooped up and led away from the church. Leah felt speechless as he carried her away. Out of her peripheral vision. She could have sworn she saw Natalie laughing. Apparently, Elliot did get a lot stronger. There was no way he could have picked her up when they first met."What are you…" There was a whinny and Leah saw Vaughn come into view, holding the reins of her horse.

"Oh, you brought Lily." Her husband chuckled and helped her get on Lily's back. It was obvious from her smell and shiny coat that someone had given her a nice, overdue bath.

"Vaughn, thanks so much," Leah said gratefully as Elliot sat behind her and gripped the reins. The livestock dealer adjusted his hat and gave the couple a single nod.

"It's my job."

Leah gave a bittersweet smile at those familiar words and then cocked her head so she could look at Elliot.

"So where do you plan on going now?" She asked him.

"Home." Elliot kissed her cheek and urged Lily forward. "Where else?"

--

"How cute," Hecate droned. The witch was hidden nicely in the thick cover of the forests, but the newly wed couple probably wouldn't have noticed her if she stepped right in the middle of the main trail. "You didn't look all that sad. I was even a bit envious, at first, until I saw how you turned out."

"Oh, why thanks," Leah replied dryly. She left the witch princess's side and floated towards side of the trail. Elliot looked happy in that moment, and if only his bride had smiled, then perhaps it would have made a cute picture. The kind that happy couples decorate their mantles with and loving mother-in-laws hang upon their walls.

The newlyweds zoomed by on Lily and Leah shivered as her younger self passed by her spot. A sigh escaped her lips and she floated through the forests, not even bothering to dodge the trees, until she found the blond, cloaked figure in the shades of her secluded home.

"Even after seeing this, you _still_ want to go through your life? You really want to redo all the mistakes and pain just so you have the possibility of changing who you married?" Leah took a seat in midair and looked down at her semi-transparent hands folded on her lap.

"Yes."

The princess rolled her eyes and motioned her inside the little hut. "You _do_ know that Miss High and Mighty won't approve of this one bit, don't you?"

Leah closed her eyes in pain and nodded. Once again, she was going against everything she believed in and betraying those closest to her just to do something selfish.

"I ruined my entire life for my mother," she whispered to Hecate. The witch stopped in her tracks and turned around, glaring sharply at the aged woman. She was a pathetic sight, only half way visible, thin and frail looking, graying hair. Leah was only a year into her thirties and she looked almost as old as her husband's mother.

"If you had ruined your life for anyone else, then I wouldn't be helping you at all. Now hurry up before the daylight dies. You never know when _she_ might pop her head in."

Leah sighed and followed behind the witch, phasing through the door as Hecate apparated inside.

"We've gone over the rules, haven't we?" she asked Leah, who nodded.

"I only get one shot, every difference I make must be bigger than the last one, and I'm not allowed to see my future until it's over."

"Good," Hecate murmured, walking towards her shelves filled with potions and worn out teddy bears. Even in the thousands of years she's been alive, Hecate's always had a strange affinity for those stuffed animals. The witch moved potions around and rearranged bears until she found what she was looking for. The blond grinned as she walked towards Leah, her red eyes nearly glowing with excitement.

"Close your eyes."

"Haven't we had enough surprises already?" Leah snapped. A habit that she'd picked up thanks to Belle.

"Fine, fine," Hecate mumbled. She handed Leah a small, pinkish red vial. "This will keep you from disappearing for a while. You'll start to become translucent again, and that's your cue that the magic's wearing out. Just think about where you want to be and it should happen."

"Wait, I'm going alone?"

"You didn't have a problem going anywhere along when you were a teenager. You'll see me again very soon." Leah looked down at the solid vial. It almost looked as if it were floating in mid air. Her hands were only slightly visible, and her arms seemed to be disappearing as well. "Trust me," Hecate said. It wasn't a very reassuring thing from someone who spent her days plotting mischief and wreaking havoc on the island.

"Goodbye, Hecate. Thank you."

"Yeah, yeah," the witch waved dismissively. "Hurry up before I change my mind."

Leah opened her mouth to say something more, but Hecate had turned back towards her now messy shelves of potions and animals. Leah opened the vial with a now invisible hand and took one deep breath before she guzzled down the sweet, sweet liquid in two gulps.

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**Author Notes:** If you've read this far, congrats!!! I'd love any feed back of positive and negative things I've done. Just, er, no flames, please. I'm somewhat sensitive. But I had this idea from three main sources. No.1 was the song "If I could Turn Back Time" that came on when I was getting ready for work. Thank you, Cher. The second was a Teen Titans episode, "How Long is Forever" where the team breaks apart and Star has to go back in time and change the fate of herself and her friends. And the final source, the reason it's a Harvest Moon story, was my handy dandy Save File 1. It was my first game of Island of Happiness, and I was in a rush to get everything done (everything shipped, everything built) and I rushed into a marriage with Denny because he was really easy to please. Seriously. A small fish a day keeps the Lanna away. XD Haha. I joke. But we ended up marrying in the Spring of Year 2, and now that it's almost Year 3, I thought," This isn't fun anymore, I don't even like Denny. I should have waited on Vaughn or Mark." And I really, really wished that I could have turned back the time to marry one of them instead. And then I got this story idea!


	2. Oh, brother En garde!

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own any Harvest Moon characters, but I do, however, own Zachariah, Helen, and Richard Baron.

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I sought my soul, but my soul I could not see.  
I sought my God, but my God eluded me.  
I sought my brother and I found all three.  
-Author Unknown

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**Author Notes:** You're all probably thinking, "What the heck is up with all these stupid little quotes?" Well, there's a reason for my madness, and later on in the story, you'll see what I mean by all of them. There isn't a ton of action in this chapter, but I just wanted to give you guys a sense of how close Leah and Zacky are, and how her family operates. It's kind of unnatural for them to be born siblings, but it'll be a long running theme throughout the story. You'll see why. Sorry it's kind of crappy, but Leah's gonna be more than a bump on the log in the next chapter. I've already got some of it written out.

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Helen cursed into the phone.

"What? What do you mean you 'can't make it'?" She asked testily. One of the maids in the hall passed by the angry woman's powder room hurriedly. She was new, of course. Anyone who worked for the Barons for a month would realize that they weren't the most stable family.

"Well I don't _care_ about your bloody business meeting," Helen snapped at her husband. She felt a kick coming from her stomach and was forced to sit down, but that didn't stop her rage – only fueled it. "Of course I – No, you know what, just take your little trips to Diamond City and Mineral Town. Zachariah and I will be just _fine_ with a baby almost eight months along. Oh, _no_, darling, by all means, don't come home for our anniversary. I know how _important_ this deal is for you. Richard, please, spare me. Yes, darling, of course. Goodbye," she said curtly, slamming down the phone.

The twenty three year old woman looked down at her protruding stomach and rubbed the expensive fabric around her belly.

"You're proving to be much more trouble than you're worth," she muttered to the unborn child, getting up. She nearly fell over once, but she grabbed the wall for support and made it to a standing position. Did she really have this much trouble with Zack? No, of course not. That was when she was still young and in love with the man she married. After Richard's father died, their love went down the drain but they were rich, thanks to the mining company Richard inherited.

"Bloody business trips all around the country," Helen mumbled as she shuffled down the hallways. "It's not like your wife and children are anything important at all." Her feet sunk in the deep carpets and the intricate vases along the halls were a painful reminder of how her relationship turned to hell. She had a love for beautifully crafted pots and holders. On her first birthday after they got married, he bought her a cheap but very pretty flower pot. He did the same on their anniversary, and her birthday after that. But then his father died and they were both rich beyond anything they'd hoped for.

His thoughtful, simple little gifts turned into large, intricate, and very expensive pots that held absolutely no sentimental value. The last one he had bought her was worth over 100,000 Gold. It was beautiful, yes, but she found no point in buying something so useless. He wasn't even there on her last birthday, he was mining some unknown little island off the Diamond Barrier Reef and had it shipped to her.

"I never knew you cared so much about his absence," Leah whispered to her mother. So Zacky was right. She wasn't always heartless. This woman in front of her right now was very different from the woman she grew up with. This Helen, she actually seemed to care about her family. Leah felt a surge of guilt at all the times she'd yelled at her mother. If only she'd known… Helen clicked her tongue and continued to struggle down the grand hallway, still quietly complaining about her husband's absences. Leah followed the woman to one of the various bathrooms in the estate, where Helen struggled to bend down and wash her face with water, so she instead wet a towel and rubbed over her forehead.

Leah gasped at the two reflections in the mirror. One was of her pregnant mother, whose eyes were slightly red, and another was of someone terribly familiar looking. It took a moment for Leah to realize that it was her. Or it would have been her if only she'd aged more nicely. She looked a lot like her mother, except she was more lean, as her mother had a naturally petite build. Leah's hair was russet colored, like it had been when she was fourteen, but it went down to her midback and flipped outward at the edges slightly, whereas her mother's dark brown hair held natural blond streaks and framed her thin profile. Leah's face was smooth, unblemished and unwrinkled. Her facial structure indicated that she was matured, but she looked no older than somewhere in her early twenties, where her own mother was now. Helen stood up and glared at her own reflection, unaware of the presence so close to her. The pregnant woman's brown eyes were filled with such anger…

"Zachariah always told me that I looked like you when I got mad," Leah said to her mother. The woman sighed and tried to bend over the sink so she could examine the worry lines beginning to appear on her face more closely. "I guess I never really believed him until now. Kind of ironic, huh?"

Leah watched her mother study her face until she realized that Helen wasn't going anywhere soon. And even if she was, it was going to take her a little while to get there with her stomach. The brunette frowned and suddenly wondered if _she_ looked that big when she was pregnant with Belle… how embarrassing. Leah soon left the little bathroom and decided to walk around the familiar house.

The kitchen she'd sneak into looked so much different in the daylight, when there were actually people working and doing their jobs. She could have sworn it was bigger when Zack would take her to steal a little midnight snack, but they were only children then. The kitchen hadn't changed at all, Leah realized, she had, and so did her memories of the place.

The woman shook her head and then walked into the large dining room. The intricate dark oak stained table held enough seats for fourteen people, six on each side and two at the head. She remembered so many times, sitting on one side beside her brother as they shared a tasty sweet that they shouldn't have been eating. Leah pulled out a chair and sat down, running her hands along the smooth table top. She couldn't remember _one time_ when she sat down to have a nice, complete meal with her entire family. Father was always with a client or some other equally important person, and eventually, Mom got tired of waiting up for him and began her own little secret life.

Most of the times it was just Leah and Zack. ZachandLeah. That's what all the servants seemed to say. They were always together, always in trouble, but they had each other, and not much else. "We caught ZackandLeah trying to sneak off to the gardens past midnight! ZackandLeah were playing hide and seek in the _parlor room_. ZackandLeah ransacked the kitchen," the staff would complain. It was a wonder no one ever quit working for the Barons, the pay had to be excellent to keep up with two trouble children such as them.

Leah shook her head and got out of her chair. She wondered where her big brother was at this particular moment in her… The brunette turned to tuck her chair in, but it was already back in its original position, like it hadn't been touched at all. She shook it off and wandered out into the hall, thinking where a devious five year old boy would hide.

As if on cue, there was a sound of something metal clanging to the floor, and then shouting in foreign accents. _The kitchen_. Leah floated towards the door labeled "IN", but before she entered the kitchen, she heard a mischievous laugh, a curse, and as a chef tried to enter the kitchen, a little boy with freckles and dark brown hair zoomed out of the kitchen with two handfuls of what looked like chocolate cheesecake.

'_Some things never change,'_ Leah thought to herself, smiling as memories of her adolescent years resurfaced. Zack had kept up his little cake stealing tradition at least until he was eighteen years old. Even on visits after he moved out, he still liked to wake up at midnight and eat something sweet. Little Zachariah laughed and streaked past her and the chefs until he nearly bumped into a very pregnant Helen.

"Mom!" he gasped, trying to hide his cake filled hands behind his back.

"Zachariah Richard Baron," she scolded. "It's almost dinner time and you're eating." Eating?! One of the chefs – Leah couldn't even remember his name, he had quit sometime before she turned six – complained about how he ransacked the kitchen, stole the cake, and then ran away laughing and screaming.

"That doesn't sound like it should be a concern of mine," Helen told him coldly. "Clean the kitchen and bake more cake. Problem solved." The chef muttered to himself," Ay ay ay…" and walked off, shoulders slumped back to the kitchen. Leah found herself smiling at all the times she'd used that same tone to boss around the kitchen servers.

"Zack, what have I told you about running around?" She asked, frowning down at the boy. "You could have hurt the baby." Leah raised her eyebrows and walked close to her mom and brother, forming a close triangle. Zack stuck his lip and crossed his arms, mumbling something about the baby.

"Excuse me?" Helen asked sharply.

"I said," Zack answered loudly. "I don't CARE about the baby." Leah furrowed her eyebrows as her sibling threw a tantrum. "Every time you talk to dad it's all about 'businesses and the stupid little baby. I don't even see why you should have a baby." Ouch. That kind of hurt, knowing that the closest person you didn't originally didn't want you at all.

"Zachariah," Helen began soothingly. "That's not true."

"Yes it is! You don't even care about me anymore. I wish that baby would just leave!"

Helen and Leah both stood in surprise. Helen called out at her son and held out an arm, but all she could do was waddle in the general direction he disappeared off to as the five year old boy zoomed away. He was always speedy, Leah had to give him that. She flew quickly behind him and even entered his room after he slammed and locked the door.

_I wish that baby would just leave._ Leah sighed and sat down on her brother's bed as he pouted. Little did he know, that one day, that 'baby' wouldn't be a baby anymore, but she would end up leaving home. For good.

"Oh, Zacky," Leah moaned. "You cursed me and you don't even know it."

"Stupid baby," he grumbled. "Baby this, baby that." Usually, Leah would have found herself wanting to laugh at the way he imitated Mother using a high pitched voice and swung his hips around like a wannabe fashionista, but she didn't even crack a grin as he kicked a soccer ball. It bounced off the wall only to hit him in the back as he turned around, and Zack only let out a frustrated cry as he slammed it towards a large, Lego tower. Zachariah plopped down on the floor and pushed a little racecar back and forth with his index finger.

"That dumb little baby just had to come and rip our family apart." Leah felt her heart wrench. He may have only been five, but Zacky had no idea how close he was to the truth. Since she was a kid, everything wrong with the family had something to do with her. Mom's aging was all her fault for being a whiny child, Dad's business trips were all her fault because she was _expensive_, the servants' problems were all her fault because she was troublesome…

"I did do a lot of damage to the family, didn't I?" she whispered. Zacky stopped playing with his car and he looked up at her, with those wide blue eyes that Leah'd come to know and love, those eyes that she'd missed so much over the years. It hurt, knowing that she was the cause of a lot of her family's grief, but having her brother predict that at age five was just a steak through her heart.

She felt guilty as he stared in her direction. He may not have known she was there, and maybe he couldn't see her, but Zacky had always believed in things that shouldn't be true. Leah had the feeling that this five year old knew a lot more than he let onto.

"Dopey little baby," he murmured angrily to himself, looking away from the spirit. Leah watched him get up and place a little helmet on his head, and then don a red cape. It was from his favorite action show, although the name of it escaped her. Zacky picked up a plastic sword and aimed it at her, raising an eyebrow. He even got the antagonist's voice correct as he mimicked what Leah knew as part of a speech from "The Final Battle", the last episode of the show.

"You zilly child," he said in a false French accent, twirling the sword around. Leah stood up from his bed and watched him watch her. It may have been her imagination, but it seemed an awful lot like he was aware of her presence. "You have doomed us all –" he posed with his sword. " – and now you shall be the one to pay!"

Leah felt it again, that hot knife drill right into her heart. At _pay_, Zacky parried with his plastic sword and launched it straight into her stomach. It didn't hurt, of course, as the object went right through her, but that didn't mean she could easily shake the feeling that came with knowing her brother was right. After all, he was always right.


End file.
